Conventionally, it has been known in the field of huilding construction to provide concrete forming structures for floors, walls, columns and pillars or tbe like comprising plywood or other wooden sheeting for surface contact with the poured concrete. Such forming structures support the newly-poured concrete walls or columns throughout the curing period of the concrete, which may typically be of the order of several days.
The known concrete forming structures generally include a plurality of individual plywood sheets to form a molding surface or facing against which the concrete is to be poured, the sheets being fastened or otherwise secured to a framing structure which may comprise a number of structural elements such as load-bearing timbers, beams or joists, as is well known to these skilled in this art. In the case of a typical wall form, the structural elements therefor comprise a plurality of vertical studs to which the sheeting is nailed or otherwise secured, the studs being in turn backed-up by a plurality of horizontal waler members. In many cases, the conventional wall forms further require a plurality of tie rods or the like which are disposed hetween the parallel faces of the assembled form and are intended to provide greater structural integrity to the forming structure.
The prior art forms of the type discussed above are generally custom made to suit a particular concrete pouring operation, thereby requiring considerable cutting and fitting of the numerous constituent parts of the forming structure and calling for either skilled or semi-skilled labour for the assembly thereof. Once the concrete poured therein has set, these known forms are dismantled and stripped away from the hardened concrete, resulting in a substantial amount of ruined lumber parts and metal fittings or fasteners which cannot be reused in subsequent concrete forming operations. lt may therefore be appreciated that the of conventional concrete pouring structures, characterized by formwork constructed from timber, is cost intensive from the perspective of both labour and materials.
A number of concrete pouring systems consisting of prefabricated component parts have been developed over the years in an attempt to alleviate the various problems associated with the conventional job-dedicated concrete structures described above. However, some such concrete pouring systems do not entirely eliminate the use of non-reusable components. Furthermore, the component parts of known prefabricated formwork systems may on occasion include steel panel facings or steel structural members, thereby resulting in heavy and cumbersome concrete forming structures. Moreover, some such prefabricated formwork systems require numerous pieces of hardware such as nails, bolts, ties, wedges, clamps and the like for assembly, which hardward may not necessarily be reusable. Other systems of this prefabricated type are composed of a rather large number of constituent parts which necessitates that manufacturers, suppliers or users thereof stock an excessive inventory in order to be able to assemble a broad variety of concrete forming structures for the commonly encountered sizes of walls or columns, for instance.
In yet other known prefabricated concrete forming systems, assembly and disassembly of the various constituent components is both difficult and time consuming. In addition, some of the known systems do not adequately provide for aoourate alignment of the modular elements thereof, with the result that offsets, e.g. ridges, creases or other like markings, are formed in the finished concrete from panel members which do not properly align at their joints. Still other prefahricated systems of the prior art comprise modular elements which are rather bulky, and these sys ems are hence difficult to store and to transport to the work site, even in unassembled form.
It is accordingly one object of the present invention to provide a system of interconnecting modular panels for assembling a broad variety of concrete forming structures, wherein all of the component parts thereof and securing means therefor can be reused in subsequent concrete forming operations.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a modular assembly for concrete forming structures wherein the modular elements thereof consist of a rather reduced number of constituent parts, such that manufacturers, suppliers or users of the present invention need not stock an excessive inventory in order to be able to assemble the commonIy encountered sizes and configurations of pouring structures in the construction field.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a system of prefabricated components f or a concrete pouring structure which is fast and easy to assemble and to subsequently disassemble once concrete poured therein has set, and which may be assembled or disassembled by semi-skilled or unskilled labour a the construction or building site.
It is vet another object of the invention to provide a modular assembly for concrete forming which ensures acourate alignment to the modular elements thereof so that offsets or other imperfections may be avoided in the finished conorete surfaces.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a prefabricated system for concrete forming structures comprising relatively compact modular elements which may be conveniently stored and transported to the work site.
Still a further object of the invention is to provide a modular assembly for concrete forming whose constituent parts are amenable to manufacture by aluminium die extrusion processes, therehy resulting in relatively lightweight, strong and rigid modular elements therefor.